I am known to have tart taste buds (as opposed to sweet tooth) and today I was craving something sour and soupy. When scavenging my fridge I found a block of tamarind paste that I’ve forgotten and finally I came up with an idea of making another Indonesian’s soup called “Pindang” (pron: pin-DUNK). As usual the staple of most Indonesian dish are galangal root (white ginger), turmeric root, lemon grass and lime leaves. This dish is SUPER EASY to make. If you can’t find tamarind paste, feel free to substitute with lemon juice mixed with puree dates, prunes and dried apricots (source). I personally haven’t tried this before but it sounds pretty yummy as well. For galangal substitution, you can just use regular ginger. It might not have the same effect but still fine.

Yellow Tamarind Cabbage Soup (“Pindang”)
Ingredients:
4 tomatoes – cube cut
1 carrot (mine was a giant carrot) or 2-3 regular size carrots – diagonally cube cut
2 shallots
2 inch of galangal root -sliced
1-2 inch turmeric root -sliced matchstick size (or use 1-2 tsp turmeric powder)
Salt to taste
Tamarind block paste

2 stalks of lemon grass -bruised
1/4 cabbage – chopped

Any homemade broth you have (I used my homemade chicken broth) – about 3 quart
3 tsp coriander powder
Handful of lime leaves

Directions:
1. Cut about 1 inch of tamarind block paste, then soak in hot water

2. Cut all the ingredients, set aside

3. Heat a skillet in medium high heat with 1 Tbsp coconut oil

4. Saute the chopped turmeric root, galangal, chopped shallots, lemon grass and lime leaves until fragrant

5. Pour your broth of choice into a pot (about 3/4 filled), dump all the ingredients plus the saute shallots/herb/spices mixture.

6. Pour in the tamarind liquid, salt and coriander. Adjust seasonings to taste. Boil in medium high for about 30 minutes or until all vegetables are tender. I used my pressure cooker and it took me about 5-10 minutes.

Serve with any protein of your choice! I used my cooked grass fed ground beef.

Sweet and sour – just to perfection 🙂

• Tweet